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Cohda Wireless connects more cars in US trial

March 24, 201619:22Stuart Corner

Adelaide-based Cohda Wireless, a developer of collision avoidance technology for motor vehicles, is to supply its equipment for a trial that it says will lay the groundwork for the expected mandating of connected vehicle technology in the US within four years.

South Carolina’s Clemson University has chosen Cohda to supply its MK5 onboard and roadside unit hardware and software for a project supported by US Ignite, a White House initiative that is run by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

According to the NSF, by the end of the decade, the US Department of Transportation will likely require all new vehicles to be connected vehicles, capable of communicating with other vehicles and roadside infrastructure through wireless communications in order to reduce the number of crashes and save lives.

The University will use Cohda Wireless units for the South Carolina Connected Vehicle Test bed, a 16-kilometre segment of Interstate I-85 near Clemson’s International Center for Automotive Research campus in Greenville South Carolina.

Clemson University School of Computing associate professor, Jim Martin, said Cohda’s technology was chosen primarily for two reasons: its MK5 onboard unit and roadside unit performed well in validation tests and because Cohda had provided “outstanding” support to help get equipment up and running, he said.

Cohda Wireless CEO Paul Gray said the company’s selection for the trial would “further extend Cohda’s leading position as a provider of innovative Connected Vehicle technology.”

Cohda claims that its technology is used in more than 60 percent of all vehicle-to-vehicle and field trials worldwide today. “Customers include many carmakers, tier one suppliers, automotive chipmakers, road authorities and new market entrants. Cohda’s products are already used in the USA, Europe, Australia, Japan, China, and Korea,” the company said.

Cohda’s technology uses a variant of WiFi to enable nearby vehicles to communicate with each other and relay speed and direction information. On board processing uses this information to compute the likelihood of a collision and to issue warnings to both drivers.